Summary (As submitted to professor...)

Summary: Becoming Partakers of the Divine Nature

As I look back over the journal that I completed for this assignment, I can’t help but wonder if I was too hard on myself. I thought I was getting along pretty well in my Christian community but reading through these verses each day and having to record the first things that came to mind was an eye-opening experience. I wrote my journal in what’s called “stream of consciousness.” It may not have perfect grammar, spelling, or punctuation but it is the thoughts that began to flood my brain immediately following my reading of the 2 Peter passage. You may wonder why my journal is not attached here… I decided to post it to a blog on the Internet for others to see and experience. There are times when shared spiritual awakening can affect change in others and I am always willing to pour out my heart and splay myself open before the world so that they may see what I am truly made of. You can visit it at: http://2peter1.blogspot.com. I have thoroughly enjoyed this time of reflection and would be interested to see how my answers might compare if I were to complete this devotion again in my senior year of seminary. It was for me the beginning of what I’ve come to call my “Benedictine Moments,” when I get to spend time in study and contemplation like I have never really done before.

If I had to summarize my journal entries and tell you about one thing that I’ve learned from completing this assignment, I would have to say that I have got a lot of work to do to bring myself up to a truly graduate-level mindset for my seminary work and my relationship with God. It was almost like realizing you’re grown-up. This isn’t the frou-frou undergraduate replay of high school that I’m used to. This is about the rest of my life and career. Each of the items that I pointed out in my journal entries as areas that I need to work on, are strictly the result of my mindset. I plan to use Labor Day weekend this year as a time of stepping away from myself to really be able to come back to what I’ve become over this summer: a 26 year old seminary student with real people looking to me as a spiritual leader. If I am going to be that person (that I’ve always wanted to be) I have to have the whole package. I have to have my family in order, my house in order, my finances in order, my study habits in order, my relationships in order, and the list could go on all night. I can and will do this because it is God’s plan for my life. I just have to give Him all of myself… including the parts that I’ve been trying to hang on to so that I could say I had control over something!